Despicable Her
by Suki-Itami
Summary: Gru's girls are all grown up. Agnes is a bestselling children's author and Margo is a scientist for the AVL. Edith, however, died in a freak accident while training to become a ninja. Determined to discover the cause of what killed her sister, Margo risks her life to uncover the truth of the most secretive villain organization on the planet.
1. Weird Sand

_"The fact is that we have no way of knowing if the person we_ _ **think**_ _we are is at the core of our being. Are you a decent girl with the potential to someday become an evil monster, or are you an evil monster that thinks it's a decent girl?"_

-Derek Landy

- _Death Bringer_

Chapter 1: Weird Sand

With a sigh, Margo resisted the strong urge to roll up the sleeves of her lab coat before starting her work once again. This time she had to stop in order to pull her long brown hair up into a messy ballerina bun so it would stay out of her face and maybe, just _maybe_ keep the back of her neck cool in the sweltering heat of her lab. The time before that, she had stopped to strip herself of her t-shirt, leaving herself in only her white lab coat, white camisole, and the red plaid knee-length skirt she usually wore; even her shoes were off, despite her boss advising against it.

It wouldn't be so bad in there, she knew, if her lab wasn't in a tent in the middle of the desert. But there she was, only three weeks after graduating college with honors and as third in her class, with a prestigious job in the Anti-Villain League. This was the part she had known, as the AVL had head hunted her a year ago.

The part she didn't know until she had been given her first assignment was that the specific lab she was assigned to was in the middle of a desert. Hell, she wasn't even quite sure what she was supposed to be looking for, just that she was to report anything weird about the sand that they kept bringing to her in barrels.

Before she leaned back over the microscope she had been looking into all day, she looked over at the old photo on the desk to her left with a sad smile.

In it was her father, Felonius Gru, her mother, Lucy Wilde-Gru, and her two younger sisters, Edith and Agnes Gru.

Lucy had given her the photo—the last one they had taken as a family before Edith died—before she had flown out to the lab. Agnes had just wanted to mail it to her older sister so it would be a surprise but the lab technically didn't exist, and though their parents could've gotten the location as they both still worked for the AVL, they elected to not interfere with her work. (This was far more difficult for Gru than Lucy, and it was she who had convinced Gru that it would be best to allow Margo to do this on her own.)

Her smile dropped for a moment as her eyes lingered on Edith, wearing her favorite pink hat that obscured most of her blonde hair from view. The photo had been taken only two weeks before Edith had gone to stay with a monk on a Himalayan mountaintop to learn martial arts that few had ever learned before. She was, obviously, beyond excited to go.

However, only a week into her training, the mountaintop dissolved into nothingness before the eyes of a Sherpa and the people he was leading up the mountain. Nothing could be recovered to even suggest that Edith or the monk had ever been there, even though the monk had lived there for fifty years.

Margo turned to look back into the microscope once again to look for what she was now calling "weird sand", but saw nothing odd. She leaned up and grabbed the pencil sitting next to the microscope and wrote down the same thing she had written down the past 108 times: "NORMAL".

This was a good thing, she supposed, but she had been wanting to find _something_. There had been traces of a strange chemical mixture at the site where the mountaintop had once been that had been found previously in the desert she had been sent to, but the AVL hadn't thought anything of it until then. She was there to find the chemical within the sand and study it to see what it was and why it made the entire peak of a mountain disappear into thin air.

She took the glass slide out from underneath the microscope and grabbed the next prepared one.

The slide slid into place just as easily as the last; Margo secured it in its place before leaning over to check this bit of sand. It, too, was normal.

Sighing, she wrote this down and switched out the slides again.

She did this again with the slide after that, and the one after that too.

But the next slide, she found something odd.

Quickly, she stood straight up and rubbed her eyes to be sure that it wasn't the fact that she was tired making her see things before leaning over to double check what she was seeing.

"What is that?" She muttered to herself. It looked like something was…eating the molecules that made up the sand.

She stepped over to the phone on her desk next to the photo of her family and punched in a number. "Hey, this is Margo."

 _"Ah, yes, Miss Gru,"_ a distinctly English accented voice said back formally, _"have you found something?"_

"I think so. It's…weird," she told him. "I think it'd be best if you came down here to see for yourself."

 _"Alright,"_ he responded, _"I'll be there presently."_

She placed the phone back in its cradle and went back to the microscope to find, much to her shock, that whatever was eating the sand had progressed significantly. She took the slide out from the microscope and looked closely at the visible bits of sand to see it slowly breaking down. She turned the slide over to look at the label underneath that had the number of the barrel the sand had come from.

"Number one three five," she said to herself as she placed the slide gently back onto the lab table.

She walked over to the corner of the tent where the barrels of sand were being kept so that they wouldn't be in her way whilst she worked, and moved each of the wrong ones out of her way. The correct one was, of course, the final barrel she had come across.

Margo reached to take the lid of the barrel off as the flap of the tent was thrown aside for a thin man who was challenging the heat of the desert by wearing a black suit. His name was Peter Dicks, and he was the leading supervisor of the labs set up in the area. "Margo?" He narrowed his eyes when he saw that she had barrels all over that half of the tent and was about to open the only one still in the corner. The formality that had been present in his voice on the phone had disappeared almost as easily as it had come. "What _are_ you doing?"

She stepped over to him and pointed at the barrel she had been about to open. "That's the barrel the weird sand came out of!"

"'Weird sand'?" He raised an eyebrow.

She nodded and pulled him over to the microscope; she placed the slide back in its place underneath the magnifier. "Look!"

Seemingly skeptical now, Mr. Dicks leaned over the microscope for a few seconds before pinning at Margo with an annoyed look. "Is this a joke?"

"No, it's not. Isn't it weird?"

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Margo, there's nothing there!"

"What?" She leaned over the microscope again, finding, to her astonishment, that the sand was completely gone. "No, that can't be. Not already! It wasn't progressing that fast!"

Mr. Dicks sighed. "Perhaps you should get some rest."

"No, there was sand—" She went over to the barrel she was going to open before he'd walked in. "It came from _this barrel_!"

"Margo, darl—" He paused when she, with ease, opened the lid of the barrel, only to find it hollow and empty. Almost as if there hadn't been anything inside at all. "What?" He stepped over to the barrel as well and looked inside. "I authorized this barrel yesterday. It was full."

"That's what I was hoping to show you," she told him. "The sand that I observed under the microscope had something eating away at it. Maybe we can get more from that area so I can record what I see—where's my microscope?" They both looked over to find that not only had the microscope seemingly disappeared into thin air, so had everything that had been on the table, including Margo's coffee.

Mr. Dicks knit his eyebrows together at the sudden disappearance of his scientist's stuff. "What the…?" He and Margo both yelped as the table she had been working off of apparently dissolved from top to bottom. "Get out," he said softly as the floor of the tent was dissolving and Margo grabbed for her sneakers. "Get out!" He took a knife out of his pocket and sliced open the wall of the tent; he shoved Margo into the sand outside and dove out after her.

They sat up in time to see the remainder of the tent dissolve before them.

Margo slipped her shoes on and stood when Mr. Dicks did. "Looks like we found what caused the mountaintop to vanish," she said to him without realizing it.

"It seems so, love," he responded. He gestured to the vehicle behind them where a driver in a white t-shirt and blue jean shorts was staring at where the tent had been in shock. "Let's go back to base. Maybe we can send a team out to recover something from this area later."

Slowly, she nodded and moved toward the Jeep until screaming from the driver alerted them. Seconds later, the Jeep and the driver were both gone, leaving absolutely no sign that anyone or anything that had ever been there.

"Bloody hell, run!" Mr. Dicks took off, knowing that Margo wasn't far behind.

They didn't have to look to know that the sand behind them was dissolving away into nothingness as they ran, they could hear it as a _shhh_ noise coming closer and closer. They were sure, though, the adrenaline running through their veins would push them to make it back to the base hovering not too far away.

But as soon as the base came into sight, the sand caught up to them and they began to fall back into whatever was causing the sand to disappear.

Margo screamed, thinking she was about to die, but fell back against a force field that was holding her and Mr. Dicks in a sphere. She sat up in the sphere and following the energy beam that was controlling it to a familiar large silver vehicle floating above them.

Mr. Dicks looked up at the vehicle with shock. "Who the hell is that?"

"That's my dad," she replied with a smile.

As the sphere was being lifted to the vehicle, they looked back to what had been the desert beneath them, but was now a sinkhole. Even the base that they had been running towards for safety had disappeared into whatever void had consumed that portion of the desert.


	2. Friends, Family, and Enemies

_"The worst enemies are the ones that used to be friends."_

-Unknown

Chapter 2 - Friends, Family, and Enemies

Before Margo was able to say "hello" to her dad, mom, or little sister, or even introduce Mr. Dicks to her family, her dad was there. He was as tall as ever, barely able to fit in the small space they were standing in, and although he was still bald on top of his head, his eyebrows had grayed and there were deep lines running through his face. But even as Mr. Dicks took a step back toward the now-closed hatch to put distance between himself and this man that he was suddenly afraid of, Gru paid no mind to him and checked his eldest daughter over for injuries; he fretted over her even though she insisted that she was okay.

"Dad," Margo finally interrupted him, "really, I'm fine. You got here just in time."

He sighed and tried to compose himself; he tried to make it seem like he was cool, but his eyes and false smile betrayed him. "Hey, yeah, of course you're fine. Why wouldn't you be? I mean, it's not like the desert _just tried to swallow you_!"

"Dad," she groaned.

"Okay, maybe we should all take a breath here," Lucy said as she stepped up beside her husband. She hadn't changed much either since Margo saw her last; her red hair was streaked with silver and though the lines running across her face were not as deep as Gru's, her age still clearly showed. She smiled at Margo for a moment before gathering Margo into her arms. "We were all worried about you being out there once Mr. Ramsbottom told us what you were looking into. We were coming to check on you when this happened."

"Wait," Margo broke out of her mother's arms, "you asked about my research?"

Lucy and Gru both shook their heads, but Margo knew better. She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her toe impatiently until Gru scratched his cheek and said, "Well...we didn't really ask about your _research_ , we asked if you were in any actual danger with what you were doing."

"There's always danger when you're involved with the AVL," Mr. Dicks suddenly said from his position behind Margo. "Margo knew that when she signed up." He gently placed his arm around her shoulders, trying to make it seem like a gesture of comradery, but failing when he couldn't keep his eyes locked on Gru for long.

Gru narrowed his eyes on Mr. Dicks and then looked to Margo when she smiled at him tenderly. It almost reminded him of how Lucy would smile...at...him... "What is this?" He asked with a skeptical tone. "What's going on?"

"Well," Margo glanced at her dad nervously, "dad-"

Agnes burst between Gru and Lucy and pointed at Margo and Mr. Dicks. "You two are married!" She smiled from ear to ear, all of her teeth showing; she was incredibly proud of herself for figuring it out so quickly. She hadn't changed much from when she was a child; her dark hair was up in pigtails and she wore a short with the outline of a unicorn on it that simply said, _I STILL BELIEVE IN UNICORNS_ , with a pair of short jean shorts, knee high rainbow socks, and white tennis shoes.

There was a moment of awkward silence as Gru looked between Margo and Mr. Dicks with his mouth hanging open in surprise. He tried to say something, but his mouth just kept moving up and down like a fish with no sound coming from it. He looked to Lucy for support but saw that she had a big smile on her face; she was instantly accepting of the sudden news.

Finally, Margo nodded. "Yep, that's right." She slid her hand into her husband's, earning a gentle smile from him. "Dad, mom," she stepped forward with him and smiled at her parents, "this is Peter. My husband."

Finally, Gru was able to say something: " _What_?"

However, his outburst was drowned out by Lucy and Agnes squealing in absolute delight at hearing that Margo was married. Lucy brought Margo into a tight hug for a moment before Agnes tried to accidentally choke the life out of Margo with a tight hug around her neck. As Agnes was trying to kill her sister, Lucy turned her attention to Peter, who was super nervous at this suddenly intimidating woman looking down her nose at him.

"Hello there," he managed out nervously.

Lucy swooped in close to Peter's face with her eyes squinted, looking closely at his face. When he asked her if there was something on his face, she responded with, "Are you good to my daughter?"

"Of course," Peter said immediately. "I love Margo. I would never be cruel to her." He smiled at Margo when she smiled at him, having finally been released from her little sister's death hug.

Lucy leaned back up and popped the collar of her blue trench coat, trying to seem more intimidating. "Well, we'll be the judges of that, right Gru? ...Gru?" She looked over at Gru; his mouth might as well have been on the floor and a muscle underneath his right eye was twitching. "Something wrong, Gru?" She stepped over to him and poked the tip of his nose. "Gru?"

Like Lucy had pushed a button when she poked his nose, Gru suddenly yelled, " _What the heck is going on_?" He pointed at Margo. "When did you _get married_?"

"About a month ago," Margo admitted with a high-pitched innoncent tone to her voice. Her hands were clasped behind her back and her toe ground into the floor nervously; a habit from childhood.

"And you did not think to even send us a letter?" Margo glanced at Peter, who opened his mouth to speak. Gru interrupted him though: "You don't speak! I do not like you!"

"Dad," Margo groaned, "calm down. We had to have the ceremony in secret. If Mr. Ramsbottom had found out we were even in a relationship, he would've sent another supervisor to replace Peter. We're newlyweds, and I kind of wanted to be able to see him. It's been hard enough having to work all day and night."

Gru went to yell more, but Lucy pinched his lips closed, leaving him just looking confused. She smiled warmly at Margo and Peter. "It's great that you've found a great man, Margo. We'll have to celebrate later." She turned to Gru and told him in a low voice to go drive the ship home and cool off before he said something that he'd regret. He retreated, mumbling about "some guy he didn't trust marrying his daughter". Lucy turned to Peter. "Gru just needs a minute. This was...unexpected. Still great news! Just...unexpected." She pointed back to the cabin where Gru had retreated. "I'm going to go make sure he's okay. It shouldn't take us too long to get home, just relax." She walked through the cabin door to join her husband.

Agnes bounced to be right in front of Margo and Peter; a huge smile was carved into her face. "Tell me everything! How did you guys meet?"

The Minions were delighted to see everyone when the ship landed; they swarmed Margo, reveling in her safe return. But as soon as Peter walked out of the ship behind her, the silenced and just stared at him. Peter's eyes were wide looking at all of the yellow pill-shaped Minions, and their eyes wide wide looking back at him, obviously wary of the stranger that seemingly just tagged along.

Peter leaned in close to his wife. "What are those things?"

"They're my Minions!" Gru said sternly from behind them; he glared down at Peter, but smiled brightly when he turned to the Minions. "It's alright everyone," he told them. "Margo is safe." He waited for a a cheer, but Kevin just stepped forward and asked who the new guy was. Gru glanced back at Peter for a brief moment and then looked back at Kevin. "Oh yeah. That's Peter...he's...Margo's husband."

Immediately, the Minions started screaming and jumping for joy. They all lined up to shake Peter's hand or hug him, leaving him feeling awkward. Margo chuckled and kissed him on the cheek, telling him to just use the elevator to come upstairs whenever he was done. He almost didn't let her leave without him, not really sure on how to handle the Minions by himself, particularly after the cold way that Gru treated him, but Margo didn't give him much of a choice in the matter. So he ended up standing there as each of the Minions greeted him and everyone else made their way upstairs.

As soon as they exited the elevator, Gru asked Margo when she had intended to tell them she was married.

"Whenever I saw you guys next," Margo admitted. "This isn't something I could just tell you over a letter or the phone."

Gru nodded, realizing that she was right. "Fine. Just..." He sighed deeply and gave her defeated look. "I wish I would've known. I've been looking forward to the day when I could give you away." He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "But if you're happy, I'll try not to kill him."

Margo laughed. "Thanks for that, dad."

"So," he said suddenly, "what did you find out in the desert?"

"Nothing that you didn't witness for yourself." She sat down on the couch and relaxed. "There is something within the sand though. Peter seems pretty sure that whatever it is caused the mountaintop where..." She paused for a moment as her heart tightened with the name that she nearly said. She cleared her throat. "Well, it's what caused it to disappear." There was a moment of heavy silence in the room.

Taking adtvantage of the silence to change the topic for at least a little while, Lucy grabbed a small pile of letters sitting on the nearby end table and handed them to Margo. "You got some mail while you were gone."

Margo took them and stood. "Thanks mom." She started flipping through the letters as she walked to the room she still shared with Agnes while visiting. She paused with her hand on the doorknob as her eyes landed on the letter that was now at the top of the stack in her hand. She narrowed her eyes on the name. _Antonio Macho_. "What the hell does _he_ want?" She threw open the door to the bedroom and kicked it closed behind her. Throwing the letters on her nightstand, she flopped down on her bed and glared at the name.

Margo stared at Antonio's name on the envelope, remembering the last time she saw him two years ago while they were still at college. He said that he had indeed changed and intended to make up for the evil that had been brought about in the name of his father, El Macho. She believed him and she hung on every word he said; she even believed when he donned a new version of the El Macho custome and said he was going to be a hero. It seemed like Antonio _had_ changed and that he had every intention of being a superhero; he even saved cats out of trees for children.

But shortly before she was offered her job, Antonio was arrested trying to steal a dangerous particle from a laboratory in Switzerland. He killed three cops and a special forces officer trying to get away, and was currently rotting in an AVL prison.

Margo had been devestated to hear the news. Gru used to joke that it was a good thing there was a thick sheet of glass between Margo and Antonio when she went to demand why he lied to her and to end it with him for good; he never realized how true the joke was, however, as Margo would have strangled him if she'd had the opportunity.

Antionio had wisely not tried to contact her since then.

"Why now?" She muttered to herself as she ripped open the envelope. She pulled the piece of notebook paper out, finding there was a simple note written inside.

 _Margo,  
This isn't what it seems. It has never been what it seems. I've wanted to tell you so many times, but I knew that you were still angry with me. You must believe me when I say that you cannot trust the man I heard you've married.  
This is not me being jealous. But I will understand if you take it that way.  
Please, come visit me. I need to talk to you.  
Antonio_

Margo cocked an eyebrow at the note. It seemed odd, to say the least, that Antonio would even _know_ about her marriage, let alone be warning her against her husband out of jealousy. Yes, she was aware that he said that he wasn't being jealous, but she had no idea what else it could be. He was possessive of her in college, and it only made sense to her that he would be jealous that she had moved on. Still, she had to wonder, how did Antonio find out when they hadn't told a soul?

"Weird," she mumbled as she slid the letter back into the envelope and placed it on the nightstand, exchanging it for the other things she had received in the mail. Many of them were condolence letter from friends who had only recently heard about Edith's death. The rest, of course, was junk mail.

Looking through the condolence letters, Margo sighed and glanced over at the unmade bed that used to belong to Edith. Their mother had tried to make the bed after they found out Edith had died-like she always did-but couldn't bring herself to do it. They didn't want to banish any part of Edith from the house; that was why a Star Wars game still had Edith's high score on the race track, so the ghost wouldn't disappear.

Margo's eyes fell to her hands, resting on one of the condolence letter as Peter finally walked into the room looking frazzled. "Those little pill guys are weird. I don't see how your father puts up with them." His face fell when he saw the tears running down Margo's face. He sat down on the bed beside her and didn't say a word; he just put an arm around her and held her against his chest. He didn't even answer his phone when it started going off in his pocket.

He just let her cry.


End file.
